PermaFerndale Podcast 002 - A Simple Definition of Permaculture

I probably should have made this the first episode, since defining the running topic is kind of important, but the Right to Farm Act stuff was time sensitive. So here is my attempt to provide a simple definition along with some examples of how permaculture is relevant to everyone. I hope I was successful in my attempt.

This episode focuses on an attempt to briefly and simply define permaculture. This will include some of the most important elements and also why permaculture is relevant to everyone, even people who don't like or know much about gardening.

When people use the word permaculture, it is nearly impossible to immediately understand what the term means. Breaking it into it's root words only manages to confuse even more. The better phrase to use would be "permaculture design" which implies the purpose of the philosophy. 

Permaculture comes from the combination of the words "permanent" and "agriculture", but as the phrase "permaculture design" would imply, it covers much more ground than simply agriculture. Permaculture design can be applied to economic systems, social systems, urban planning and backyard gardening. It isn't limited by property size, location, climate or budget. There are permaculture gardens in cities around the country. People like Geoff Lawton are reforesting the deserts in Jordan. And people like me are planting fruit trees and other perennial food producing plants in their backyards around Metro Detroit, Detroit and pretty much everywhere else where plants will grow. 

So I guess my favorite definition of permaculture is this: Permaculture is a design science, based on thousands of years of successful human systems, that attempts to follow the patterns found in nature and apply them to every type of human interaction. This includes our interactions with nature itself as well as our interactions with each other. Permaculture teaches us to value community and make every attempt to find every connection we can within our environment. 

A good example of the way our current systems have avoided this connectivity approach is found in the way we compartmentalize all of our current careers and vocations. We have become a society of specialization. Everyone is told to decide the one thing they want to do for the rest of their lives. Then, when we have found something that kind of makes us happy (or makes us a lot of money) we go through a college or vocational program and receive specific training in that one subject. So then what happens when there aren't any available jobs in your target specialty? We are already seeing how that possibility plays out. Another scenario is evolution. What about when a person chooses a vocation that becomes obsolete? Or, what about those of us who choose something and study it for years, only to find out that our true passion lies somewhere else? These are all happening regularly and they are the reason that the higher education system that exists now is flawed. 

What if we all learned many trades and skills in vocational school or college? What if we all had the ability to have several jobs at once that equaled one full time job, but they were mostly things we actually enjoyed doing? What if we all had the ability to try other careers and vocations without having to "quit" the one that we were currently doing? These things are all possible when we deconstruct the status quo and stop believing they "can't" happen.

Agriculture has also undergone this compartmentalizing. Farmers around the country are growing our food, one crop at a time. Mostly corn, soy and wheat. This is referred to as "monoculture" and it is destroying the fertility in the topsoil while also putting farmers into the poorhouse. By reducing the diversity of crop growth on farms, the agricultural system in America is effectively making it harder for farmers to live. If there is a particularly bad drought one year, or too much rain and flooding in one season, a whole crop can end up decimated. 

Was it Aristotle who said "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"?

So permaculture makes the attempt to reverse this process. Instead of taking a system apart and examining its individual pieces, we look at all of the elements of a given system and find every possible connection between the parts. Once we have established all of the inputs and outputs and requirements of each element, we can see how they function together to complete the system and work synergistically. People are a part of this system. We have been a part of nature since the beginning. We are one more piece to the whole puzzle and we are lucky enough to have the higher brain function and reasoning power to choose where we fit. Up until this point we have chosen destruction. The environment, the atmosphere, even our own bodies and minds. But we have the ability to change this pattern and find our place within the larger image of nature and the universe. 

Permaculture has the potential to be the change we need on this planet. The more people who understand how they fit in with the design of nature and the natural order, the better chance we have to stop making poor choices about our existence and start repairing the damage that has been done and then, further down the path, live in synergy with the natural world. 

I hope I've shared some understanding with anyone who listens to this. I hope that I've allowed you to see inside my mind for a moment and see the potential and positive change that I see happening. I've been ranting about permaculture for about 2 years now and I know that a lot of people probably think I'm nuts or some sort of extremist, and I guess it is true. I'm an extremist when it comes to this stuff because it seems like common sense to me. It all falls into place and when I look at the world now, I see it very differently. I used to look at McDonald's and Red Bull and see so much despair and hopelessness. I used to look at blight in Detroit and see this pessimism. Now I have hope. I have a more optimistic view of how things CAN be. I want to share that with everyone and I want everyone to understand that with a little effort and a whole lot of community, we can affect change in a big way.

Don't forget to check out the actual podcast here: http://permaferndale.podbean.com or you can subscribe on iTunes so you don't miss an episode here: PermaFerndale on iTunes